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Paths in the Sky: Whinchat Journeys

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About the map

The Whinchat, a small songbird known for its striking markings, may seem like a familiar sight in the UK. However, as this map reveals, it’s just a seasonal visitor with roots much further afield. These tiny birds undertake remarkable migration patterns, visiting Britain and Ireland in the spring and spending the warmer months here before departing as early as August.

By creating an animation in ArcGIS Pro, their impressive journeys were brought to light, visualising their migration patterns over a span of two years.

Why it works

The time-enabled data used for this map allow for the birds journeys to be shown as an animation over time.

A “scratch card” effect was created to highlight the migration paths cumulatively. This used blend modes, which work with dynamic data (unlike clipping). The overlays added to the animation allow for visual aids which can be both static, or dynamic, and aesthetic or informative. 

Important Steps

  • 1.

    Find time stamped animal track GPS data on MoveBank and bring into ArcGIS Pro. 

  • 2.

    Use Arcade expressions in your attribute table to speed up cleaning of large datasets, filling gaps and flagging anomalies.

  • 3.

    Filter layers by time. We had one layer filtered to accumulate over time to show a path, and one layer filtered to show the birds’ daily position.

  • 4.

    Use blend modes to create the “scratch card effect” for the path layer, and modify symbol layers in the daily position layer to create the “comet tail effect”.

  • 5.

    Choose a suitable projection for your map that allows the data to be shown at its best. We went for ‘Azimuthal Equidistant (sphere)’.

  • 6.

    Create your animation by importing Time Slider Steps, and customise as you wish with overlays.

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Requirements

  • Data and software

    The data was sourced from MoveBank, an online database of animal tracking data. It included time-stamped GPS data from geolocators, tracking the migration routes and non-breeding areas of 20 Whinchats from three British breeding populations (Burgess et al., 2020).

  • Analysis

    Although no formal analysis was carried out, the filtering of time allowed us to understand temporal patterns.

  • Time

    This map took roughly 2 weeks. However, much of this time was spent experimenting with different symbology types and blend mode combinations, and becoming familiar with animations. Following a directed workflow would likely take much less time. 

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Tips and tricks

  • paths-in-the-sky-whinchat-journeys-tip-1

    Blend Modes

    Experiment with blend modes to enrich your visualisations when working with dynamic data, combining layers and highlighting patterns.

  • paths-in-the-sky-whinchat-journeys-tip-2

    Time slider filters

    Create end time fields for layers to show varying time extents in animations, like daily changes alongside accumulations.

  • paths-in-the-sky-whinchat-journeys-tip-3

    Work with symbol layers

    Symbol layers allow for more flexibility and modifications, like having a gradient travel along a line. 

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Links & Resources

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Ben Burgess

Map Author

Ben Burgess

Ben is a Junior Customer Success Consultant at Esri UK. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking and exploring new ways to connect with nature through technology.

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